This morning I finished off a first chapter that I am happy with. Yay me! Only took me several drafts and a whole lot of rethinking to achieve 😉 I think I’ve nailed it though. I’ve managed to maintain the qualities I liked from the previous version and at the same time added things which get us into the action much sooner (the inciting incident of the novel happens here rather than four chapters later) and will keep the reader gripped.

Kirsty read half of it and she says that I’ve layered it really well. By that she means I’ve added depth to the world. It’s only a little thing but she really feels that this world is real – kind of important when you’re writing fantasy.

Only 60 odd more chapters to go!

Oh, and I saw this post on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Apparently New Zealander Russell Kirkpatrick had the best selling sff debut in America this year. While I’m not a fan (and yes I have read them) I would like to wish him congrats! Now I just need to follow him in a couple of years 🙂

I finished Joe Abercrombie’sLast Argument of Kings over the weekend. I actually dawdled to the end of the book. I paced myself, reading a few pages every night rather than bashing my way through it in a few frantic hours. I wanted to prolong the experience. Yes, it was that good. Abercrombie writes in this epic noir style. He has the trappings of conventional heroic fantasy: wizards, barbarians, a kingdom under threat but he subverts them brilliantly so tired tropes suddenly take on a cynically bitter world view. Abercrombie brutalises his characters and while this is nothing new, JV Jones and George RR Martin have been doing it for years, Abercrombie takes it in an interesting, sometimes sickening, new direction. My favourite of his characters is Glokta, the man who after years being tortured in prison, takes “do unto others” as his own personal motto. But the remainder of his characters all linger in the mind.

Abercrombie makes me sick with jealousy. Bastard. His writing style feels effortless which is always a good sign that its anything but. His characters all have unique voices and the twists and turns of the tale might send you to a physio afterwards. With just the First Law trilogy behind him Abercrombie has made himself one of my personal favourites. Highly recommended.